The traditional Swedish lawn game of kubb, complimentary apples and cookies, and Swedish music on the Arts Quad yesterday helped spark dialogue among faculty and students regarding the Dutch and Swedish programs, which are slated for termination by the end of this academic year.

In a day-long rally yesterday, the Cornell Dutch Club and the Cornell Scandinavian Club amassed nearly 400 signatures — from faculty and students alike — in a petition called "Save Our Swedish and Dutch," which protests the decision to terminate both programs by the summer of 2010.

The decision, made last spring by administrators in the College of Arts and Sciences, marks the end of Cornell’s long-standing Swedish and Dutch language programs, offered by the Department of German Studies.

The Dutch and Swedish language programs have roots dating back to the nineteenth century — the earliest years of instruction at the University, which was founded in 1865. According to Patrick Stevens, curator of the Fiske Collection at Cornell, evidence in the Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections indicates that Dutch wasoffered at Cornell as early as 1883. Daniel Willard Fiske, the first University librarian and a professor of Northern European Languages, was fluent in Swedish and could have been teaching Swedish by the late 1860s.

“A major reason why we decided to hold this event on the Arts Quad was because many people have not even realized that the Dutch and Swedish departments have existed for many, many years,” said Kevin Chung ’11, vice president of the Cornell Dutch Club. “Even if the elimination of these languages is ‘inevitable,’ they simply cannot disappear off the radar. Students need to know that an abundance of programs are being taken out simply because they were the easiest to cut.”

Faced with a daunting budget shortfall last spring, administrators made the choice to cut the two language programs. The Sun reported in April that the Swedish and Dutch languages were more vulnerable to budget cuts than languages offered by departments that offer many languages, such as the Department of Romance Studies.

The Cornell administration commented briefly on the status of the Swedish and Dutch programs.

“As of now, Swedish and Dutch courses will be cut. We’re not in a position to comment on long-term plans for language teaching because we must wait until we know the final budget reductions that will be required of the college for the next fiscal year. We won’t have that information until this winter, when budgets are determined,”dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Peter Lepage stated in an e-mail.

According to a professor who does not wish to be named, Lepage and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Walter Cohen will play key roles in determining whether the decision to cut the two language programs could be reversed.

Despite news of the Dutch and Swedish programs’ numbered days, students have continued to enroll in Swedish and Dutch courses this year. Prof. Sydney Van Morgan, associate director of the Cornell Institute for European Studies, emphasized the research grants and federal funding that students involved with the Dutch and Swedish language programs bring to the University.

“Cornell has long had a reputation for offering a large number of languages, especially the so-called ‘less commonly taught languages.’ [The elimination of Dutch and Swedish] jeopardizes about one million dollars of federal grant money that, in turn, supports graduate students, language training, course development and many other aspects of European programming at Cornell,” Van Morgan said.

Moreover, both students and faculty have cited a lack of transparency in the decision-making process.

“We can only try to guess why these language programs were cut,” Chung said. “But we don’t know for sure.”

The decision to end the Swedish and Dutch programs will involve the loss of two positions, those of the Swedish language lecturer and the Dutch language lecturer. The positions are currently held by Cecilia Ovesdotter Alm and Chrissy Hosea, respectively.

Sara Larsson grad, president of the Cornell Scandinavian Club, explained that Alm and Hosea go beyond the boundaries of the classroom.

“These [instructors] are doing so much more than just teaching. They are constantly creating new opportunities for language students to practice speaking and to immerse themselves in the culture that accompanies language learning,” Larsson said.

Mary Godec ’11, president of the Cornell Dutch Club, expressed a similar sentiment.

“We will not stand by and do nothing. We will not allow the Dutch and Swedish programs to go gentle into that good night,”Godec said.

Godec also mentioned that the termination of both Swedish and Dutch programs will result in a total savings of $90,000 per year — a small amount, Godec maintains, when compared against the $135 million budget deficit that the University faces.

“The budget crisis is very real and I understand that difficult decisions have to be made,” Van Morgan said. “At the same time, these are critical languages that serve numerous constituencies, including faculty and students. In light of this, I hope that the College will reconsider the decision to cancel them.”

Godec also highlighted the importance of Dutch and Swedish as elements that allows Cornell to boast its well-publicized motto of “any person, any study.”

“Dutch and Swedish are not widely taught languages. Only 15 universities in the United States and Canada combined have a Dutch language program,” Godec said.

The elimination of the Cornell Swedish and Dutch language programs will also affect graduate students and faculty whose research utilizes such languages.

Hilary Coe Smith ’07, a Cornell alumna currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Art History and Visual Studies at Duke University, emphasized the significance that three years of Dutch language courses had on her admission to the doctoral program.

“The disappearance of both Dutch and Swedish will profoundly affect Cornell’s image as a university who is committed to teaching less commonly offered languages,” Smith stated in an e-mail.

Prof. Derek Chang, history and Asian American studies, voiced his concern for the imminent termination of Swedish and Dutch, also citing the importance of Swedish and Dutch in fields of studies beyond the language programs themselves.

“Cornell has one of the finest Southeast Asian Studies programs around. And as history shows, the Dutch were involved in Southeast Asia, so the research and work of the Southeast Asian Studies faculty relies on assistance from the Cornell Dutch language program,” he said.

“A large number of graduate students are taking my classes, and they need to know Dutch in order to do their research in Early American History, Southeast Asian Studies, Agriculture, Planning, Art History, Literature, Water Management and much more,” Hosea stated in an e-mail.

The potential interdisciplinary ramifications of the closure of the Dutch and Swedish programs have not gone unnoticed by the faculty. Numerous professors and faculty members have signed the “Save Our Swedish and Dutch” petition. The petition will ultimately be presented to Cornell administrators in an attempt to keep Swedish and Dutch alive at the University.